The Man from Gallifrey
by isansa
Summary: Ava Walker was a dreamer. She told stories with so much truth that those around her could not bare to believe. And then she met a man just as impossibly mad as she. 9, 10, and 11.
1. Expectations

**A/N:** This is a one time expression that I, _isansa_, do not own any bit or piece of the Doctor Who franchise. Everything written here is based on something I did not create. The only things I lay claim to are the concept, the style, and the non canon characters. There have been a few changes made in this chapter, but nothing major, from its original posting. I would also like to state that all three of the New Who doctors will make an appearance. 9, 10, and 11 will meet with Ava at their respected times; so, if you have a favorite, don't fret. I've finished a good portion of the episodes from series 3, 4, and 5. I've seen all of 1 and 6, and I'm working on series 2. There may be some cannonical chronology mistakes because of this. At this time (21/11/2011) I'm not sure how I will incorporate 11's life and adventures, but I do know he will be around. I hope you enjoy what's here, and I look forward to any questions, comments, or reviews. :)

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><p><span>The Man from Gallifrey<span>

**Chapter One: Expectations**

"I was born the day I met you."  
>'In A Lonely Place'<p>

The first meeting was brief, as one would expect. Expectations, however, were never Ava Walker's strong suit. Years of empty offers from boys, friends, and family prepared her well enough to never be disappointed, even at the tender age of thirteen. It was the year 2001 and young Ava was outside the walls of her home, far away down the bank from the protection of her mother's eyes. Her pockets were full of daisies just waiting to be knotted together. The girl's fingers had just plucked another flower from the stem when a strange noise seeped from the sky.

Ava's eyes were drawn upward toward the sound. An energy washed over her as if to say something rather large was heading her way; something she should avoid. Just as little Ava turned to run back to the sanctuary of her mother's arms, a blue box appeared, hurdling from the clouds. Ava glanced over her shoulder as she ran. The strange sound came from the box. The muscles in her legs pushed as hard as they could against the soggy spring ground. Ava's white sneakers sunk into the hillside as she climbed and she fell to her hands and knees. One more glance over her shoulder assured her the recklessly spinning box would not miss her. Expectations or not, Ava knew this encounter would not end well for her.

In a last attempt to escape, Ava ducked down with her arms over her head and neck, just as they taught in school. She pressed herself into the cool mud, trying desperately to make herself as small as possible. The strange noise faded away as the box skimmed just above her form. As soon as it passed over, Ava peeked between her arms to watch the blue box, a police call box she noticed. The box spun once more before a bottom corner caught the ground, sending it skidding against one of the few scattered oak trees.

White petals fluttered all around having been torn away in the tizzy that was the blue police call box. The box groaned once and then was silent. Cautiously, Ava yanked her foot from her stuck sneaker and stood to brush the mud from the navy jumper her mother had bought for her just the day before. As far as expectations go, Ava knew her mother would not be happy with the crusting stains. Her mother believed fully in expectations. Ava stepped tenderly through the flowers, or what was left of them. The call box had flattened a row of the plants, creating a path right to its door.

As far as expectations go, Ava did not expect to be so courageous. Stepping with one white socked foot in front of one white sneakered foot, she made her way across the still dewy and bent daisies to the police box. When she was but a foot from the box she extended her arm and placed a hand on the door. She waited, listening for a sound. The wood of the box was warm and tingled against her skin, almost as if it were alive. She held her breath, waiting for the leaves above her to quite themselves. That's when she heard it. A knocking sound like leather shoes on metal. The same sound as when the schoolgirls crossed the tin bridge to school. The scrape of a lock came from the door and Ava yanked her hand to her chest. The blue door flew open and she stumbled backward, falling to her backside. Ava wondered if she lay still maybe everything would be okay, but expectations were, once again, never suited to Ava.

"Where am I?" A voice wafted on the air. Not Ava's voice and not one she knew.

The girl pushed herself onto her elbows to find the speaker. This was not what she expected. A man, clothed in a long wool coat and tie, was half out of the box staring straight at her. Her heart beat so fast she could hear the blood rushing through her ears.

"Brightling." She huffed.

"The year?" He asked.

"2001." Ava dare not move.

The man looked out across the field, searching it seemed. He did not move from his half in half out spot in the door of the police box, and Ava didn't think he ever would. She scrambled up when his eyes turned to the field and backed away to where her sneaker had been sucked into the ground. She pulled it up and shook clots of mud from it. The man looked to her once more and Ava froze.

"What's your name?" He asked. The man was very strange and not like one she had ever seen before. His nose had a crook and his ears stuck out, and his eyes were as blue as she had ever seen.

Her eyes crinkled at the corners and her brows furrowed. What a strange question from such a strange man, "What's yours?"

"I'm the Doctor." He said.

"If you're a doctor, what are you doin' in a police box?"

"Exploring the galaxy," he grinned, "Want to come along?"

Ava tucked a piece of hair behind her ear before pulling on her sneaker, ready to run, "My mother taught me to stay away from strangers."

"Fair enough."

The man's grin seemed to fade instantly. A shiver wove its way through Ava's body. His eyes had gone stony and his jaw clinched tight. Just as quickly as he came, he slipped back inside the box and closed the door tightly. Just like that all the excitement Ava had ever experienced was gone. Ava called out in a flurry of confusion.

"Wait! Wait!" She walked briskly to the box. The door opened and she was struck by how tall he was to her.

"What's your real name?" She asked.

"I'm the Doctor."

Ava stiffly held out her hand, hoping he wouldn't pull her inside, "I'm Ava Walker."

He took her small hand in his and pumped it once, twice, "It's very nice to meet you, Ava Walker."

The young girl dropped her hand to her side and backed away, her eyes still locked with those of the man called Doctor. He flashed a quick smile, one she was sure was for her sake, and locked himself away in the blue police call box. Ava stood still, waiting to see what would happen. Waiting to see if she were just dreaming, or if she had really just gone insane from too much fresh air. Soon enough the box's light began to flash and that same strange noise cut the air. A groaning, wheezing noise. Right before her eyes, the blue box began to fade and with it went Ava's fright.

The man called the Doctor had more of an impact on young Ava's life than she could have ever imagined. From that spring day onward Ava Walker would be more than her mother ever bargained for, and more than she ever thought of herself. A man she met one soggy spring morning, a man she never expected to see again, changed her life for the small price of a question. Ava Walker, a young girl from Brightling who once did not believe in expectations of others, began to turn the gears in her head, looking for a way to show she had always been wrong.


	2. Life, Part One

**A/N:** This one's a three parter. Let me know if there are any mistakes. And I appreciate any questions, comments, or reviews. Pleasant reading!

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><p><span>The Man from Gallifrey<span>

**Chapter Two: Life, Part One**

"You've got to live before you can afford to die."  
><em>Grapes of Wrath<em>

Long gone were the days of Brightling. It had been exactly two years after meeting the man in the box when Ava and her mother left their countryside home for a flat in London. Ava had come to measure most things by the man in the blue box. For instance, it was not but thirteen months and sixteen days after she met the man called Doctor that her mother agreed to marry the bank man from London. And it was three years and twenty-one days after meeting the Doctor that Ava decided what she wanted to study at university.

At age 18, Ava was awaiting the day she would move into university and start on the next chapter of her life. In the absence of her country home and her mother's lack of tolerance for Ava's musings of the man in the box, Ava had grown rather ordinary if still cast aside by her classmates on the occasion of her storytelling. It was in the summer, four years and eleven months after meeting the Doctor, that Ava left home. Ava's stories and lack of ambition for the law profession had enticed her mother to pack up her daughter's room and leave it on the front step while Ava had been out with friends for a final hurrah!

It was four years, eleven months, and three days when Ava found herself storing boxes at her mate's flat, swearing it would just be for a little while. Just until she could get off to school. Just until she could get her own home. Just until she was on her feet. She did not want to impose. And then she heard it. The noise that had once made her a dreamer and the one that now haunted her. The _wvorp_, _wvorp_ of a man in a blue box.

"Ava?" Her friend called after her.

The young woman scrambled to the front door of the flat and twisted the knob. Her clammy hands slipped from the brass once before she could wrench the door open. Ava ran to the railing, leaning over in search of her childhood. Where was he? There. There was the box. The breath caught in her throat and she grabbed her friend by the wrist, dragging her over. And Ava pointed down to the street, just beyond the light of from the lamppost.

"Marnie, do you see that?"

"What?"

"Does it look like there's a box just out of the light?"

Marnie squinted into the dark, "Yeah, I suppose so. Why? What're you on about?"

Ava could not keep her eyes from the box. If she did, she was sure it would disappear. She held up a hand when Marnie grabbed at her to wait, "I'll be right back."

As Ava took each step closer to the box she began to think of the wild eyes of the man inside. The manic grin. How he towered, easily making her feel as small as a mouse. She stopped several feet from the door. She was just a child when she had first met the Doctor. Her judgment of him could have been skewered by fairytales. She was frozen there, in front of the flying blue box. Marnie called her from the flat, but Ava was in her own world, remembering how things had been before she met the Doctor. What would she say to him?

"Hello!"

The wide-eyed girl followed the leather boots, the legs, the leather coat, the ears, the nose. A pressure swelled in the center of her chest. The hair on her arms rose, and a familiar prickle started at her eyes. She could not think of a thing to say, until she let it spew from her lips without a second thought.

"You nearly took my head off!"

His eyes gave a slight flinch, "I'm sorry?"

"You nearly took my head off. Five years, eleven months."

He hung in the doorway, "Was it a Tuesday?"

"You nearly kill me and all you have is "was it a Tuesday?" Ava's face was flush now and her hazel eyes popped with the anger.

"S'there somethin' wrong?" Another voice came from inside the box. A young blonde woman appeared at the Doctor's shoulder. He stepped out of the box and she followed.

Ava did not move. She was determined to hold her ground this time. He stepped right up to her and she nearly stepped back. He was still much taller than she, but he did not tower like he had before. She looked straight into his eyes as he bent down to her level. His eyes scanned her face for any recognition, but there was none.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Ava Walker, from Brightling." His eyes lit up as she said this, and his entire face followed. The Doctor reeled back with that manic grin, laughing.

"Ava Walker! You've grown up!" He turned to the blonde girl, "Look! She's all grown up!"

"You nearly killed me and you're laughing?" Ava was angry. She was angry at so many things and people, but particularly at the man who was now laughing at her. Marnie had gone silent, and Ava almost wish she had not done so. She wished her friend was yelling at her to come back inside, to get away before that mad man grabbed her up. She would give anything for that.

The Doctor slapped a hand on her shoulder, "Well, you're alive now. That's fantastic, being alive!"

Ava looked toward the blonde woman. Anger still shook her voice, "Do you travel with him? Did he almost kill you, too?"

"Bit of the opposite, actually." She had not jumped between them or into the fray. She just kept glancing over to the mad man, "But, yeah, we travel together."

"This is Rose, by the way," the Doctor nodded. Rose gave a small wave.

Ava turned back to the Doctor, "Why are you here?"

"Well, it's not to follow you. Just stopping off to replenish the stocks."

Ava felt like a proper idiot. She clenched her fists and turned back to the building. She could see Marnie at the railing of the flat, watching everything. She left the two alone without saying another word. Right back up the steps and past Marnie, into the flat and into the kitchen. He has just made her back down. She had not wanted to, but she did, and she felt very much okay with hiding away until he was back on his way with his companion. Ava grabbed a greasy dish, flipped on the tap, and started scrubbing. Marnie came in not a moment later and slammed the tap off.

"What the_ hell_ was _that_?"

"It's nothing."

"You were yelling at that bloke! Woke up the neighbors, in the process of tellin' him off. That wasn't 'nothing'. And what's this about him almost killing you? When were you almost dead?"

"I wasn't almost dead." Ava stopped scrubbing and dropped the dish in water, "That box, that police box he came out of, he flies it. It's like a spaceship or something."

Marnie sighed, "This is why your mum kicked you out, isn't it?"

Ava gripped Marnie's wrist, "I'm serious. I was thirteen. It was when I was still living in Brightling. I was out picking flowers, and I swear that police box fell out of the sky. _He_ fell out of the sky, Marns. I swear he did."

Marnie pulled her wrist from Ava's fingers, "This's what you want to do for a living, right? Make up stories? This one'd be well off for a children's book."

"Marnie…" Ava pleaded.

"Get some rest, Ava."

It was home all over. Ava was left alone in the half-lit kitchen. Her eyes began to prickle again and that same pressure from before returned, sitting heavy on her chest and making it hard to breath. She found herself, minutes later, peeking through the front curtains from her makeshift bed on the sofa. She watched for the man and his companion to return to the box. Ava did not know what she intended on doing, if anything at all. She knew she would not be able to go after him, to make him see how that chance-meeting years ago had ruined all of the good. She just did not have it in her to be so cruel.


End file.
